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The Earth Prince sent her a bland look. “I know they want a moment alone before Tava must leave.”

“Oh, good,” Juliette chirped, already striding for the exit. “Perhaps you are not as simple as Nuri claims you are.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Azrael cursed, following Death Incarnate out of the tent.

“Do not be long, Tava,” Drake said, stopping to press a kiss to her cheek.

“You will be back at the manor before dawn?” she asked.

He nodded. Then he clapped Callan on the shoulder before he left too.

Tava slowly turned to face him as he pushed to his feet. Her hand went to her throat before she moved it to her braid, fiddling with the end of it. Callan slipped his hands into his pockets, feeling the items he refused to leave lying around anywhere.

“Say something,” Tava whispered after a lingering silence.

“I am in awe of you.”

Her face flushed, eyes fixed on the ground. “You are not upset? That I kept this from you?”

“No, Tava,” he answered softly. “Do I wish you would have told me? Of course. But I understand why you did not. I did not deserve the information. Not with who I have been these last few months. Not with who I have been my entire life, really.”

“I wanted to tell you,” she replied. “But you were grieving after everything that happened, trying to find your way through all that pain and grief. Trying to come to terms with who you had been raised to be and who you wanted to be. I couldn’t tell you. Not until I knew for sure that you would fight for them. And then you showed up in Siofra, and now you are here—”

She stopped her rambling when Callan hooked a finger under her chin, tilting her face up to his. “Thank you.”

She blinked at him. Once. Twice. “I do not understand.”

“Thank you. For believing in me when I did not believe in myself. For caring for the people of this kingdom when I did not. For fighting when I did not know there was something to fight for. For showing me the light. Thank you, Tava.”

“You will make a remarkable king, Callan,” she whispered, eyes searching his face.

“Because of you.”

She shook her head, reaching up and brushing back a piece of hair from his brow. “It has always been there. I helped you find it, but it has always been you.”

Callan lowered his mouth to hers, savoring every second of the moment they were about to lose. He inched back just far enough to look into her eyes. “I went to Siofra for you; I came here for my people. I will fight for both. No matter the cost.”

Her arms looped around his neck. She pulled his lips back to hers as she murmured, “You already have me. In this life and the next. Now we fight for our people together.”

Chapter23

Scarlett

“Iam going to Elshira,” Scarlett announced.

Everyone at the breakfast table went silent. Food paused halfway to mouths. Cethin and Tybalt exchanged stilted glances.

Cethin slowly lowered his fork back to his plate. “Why are you going to Elshira? And when? And does our mother know?”

Mother.

Scarlett held back her eye roll.

“You said there are ancient texts there. That Saylah would spend days locked away studying them,” Scarlett said, reaching for a roll. Sorin immediately took it from her, spreading jam atop it.

“I can see if Saylah is open to this,” Tybalt ventured carefully.

Scarlett waved her hand dismissively. “No need. She does not need to be there.”